Start-ups plug into wireless charging

A Cambridge, U.K.-based start-up unveiled Monday a wireless recharging technology for portable devices. The new product from Splashpower includes a receiver module, called a SplashModule, which is fitted onto a device; when the device is placed on a SplashPad charger, it is able to recharge without a traditional power adapter. The pad can charge several devices simultaneously. Splashpower is in licensing talks with several consumer and mobile device makers.

Another start-up, MobileWise, has been developing a similar technology and has announced that Acer plans to release notebooks and handhelds incorporating it in the first half of 2003. MobileWise estimated that adding chips to notebooks could cost manufacturers less than $5.